The man fatally shot by Portland police was identified Tuesday as 50-year-old Merle M. Hatch, a long-time convict who was supposed to turn himself into a Colorado pre-release center but failed to report.

An autopsy is scheduled this morning for Hatch, who was released from the federal prison complex in Sheridan on Feb. 12 with orders to report that evening to the Independence House-South Federal Center, in Colorado.

The U.S. Bureau of Prisons listed Hatch as an escapee at 9:01 p.m. that day.

Hatch checked into the emergency room Sunday evening at Portland Adventist Medical Center, then threatened a hospital employee with a gun, authorities said Monday.

He walked out abruptly and pointed the gun at a security car in an employee parking lot, police said. He was shot soon after emergency responders arrived.

Mary Hatch, Merle Hatch's mother, said she hadn't seen her son in two decades. She said Hatch lived in Colorado. She didn't know how he ended up in Portland.

"He was troubled," said Hatch, who lives in Iowa. "He was in and out of prison most of his adult life. He got into drugs early. There wasn't much left of the person we knew as a kid growing up."

She said her husband last saw their son 15 or 20 years ago and that he looked like he'd fallen on hard times. Public records show Hatch had an extensive criminal history, including arrests for drug-related crimes and a 2004 conviction in U.S. District Court in Colorado for bank robbery.

She said her son never married, had no children and no employment. She said he regularly got into trouble with the law. He stole to pay for drugs, she said. "Boy, does that ruin more people than we can even shake a stick at," she said.

While serving a 10-year stretch for bank robbery at the U.S. Penitentiary in Florence, Colo., in July 2009, Hatch wrote a polite note to the judge who sentenced him in hopes of correcting the record on his criminal history.

"Your Honor, Good day and God bless," he began. "I was convicted of bank robbery in your court 5 years ago. I received 10 1/2 years. At that time the court used a prior felony against me and counted it as violent."

The prior violent crime wrongly tacked on time to his sentence, Hatch wrote, because the court believed he had robbed an occupied dwelling.

"But the condominium was not occupied," he wrote. "It was vacant and up for sale at the time of the offense . . . thereby making it a non-violent crime. I would like to ask if you would reconsider my sentence in light of this. Thank you for your time. Merle Hatch."

No action appears to have been taken on Hatch's request, based on available records.